Arena or Amazon: Does Seattle know what's important?
Arena or Amazon: Does Seattle know what's important?
February 20, 2012 By Jordan Royer http://crosscut.com/static/news/TopNavLefter.gif Read More: http://crosscut.com/2012/02/20/real-...-s-important-/ Quote:
CenturyLink and Safeco Field could be joined by a sports arena. http://crosscut.com/static/resized_i...it_300x300.jpg The courtyard outside the Van Vorst Center on Terry Avenue N. offers seating for Amazon employees and the public. http://crosscut.com/static/resized_i...t_300x300.jpeg |
The Seattle demographic looks a bit thin for an NBA team. Three-fourths of the teams are already losing money or break-even (which means losing if accounted for properly) and this looks like another case of a team that will start asking for money or threatening to leave in about 2 years. See, also, Sacramento, Memphis, New Orleans, etc.
Amazon, of course, looks like a winner. |
A metro of 4,200,000 looks thin? I'm forgetting, but aren't we by far the largest city without NBA?
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And even if everyone drove, I don't see why they would need any new parking spaces. People can park in the existing spaces that office workers use during the day. Toronto and Vancouver both have hockey arenas and footballs stadiums almost adjacent to each other in their downtowns, and the amount of public parking spaces within walking distance of them declines every year as surface parking lots give way to new condo towers. There is no reason to build any new spaces for a downtown stadium/arena. As for actually getting NBA/NHL teams, who knows? Neither league looks like it will expand in the next 10 years, so they would almost certainly have to be relocations. Kansas City built a fancy new downtown arena to attract new teams and it hasn't worked. |
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Then again, Portland has a team. |
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I think there need to be more NBA teams in Pacific Northwest, either Vancouver or Seattle, if not both. Portland is too far away from other NBA teams now, it's really isolated. That's a big problem if you think about team travel. And as said, theat's a large population without an NBA team as well (and no NHL team either).
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Either way, Amazon's additional 3,000,000 sf of offices in Downtown, in addition to their current 3,000,000 sf either Downtown or in nearby SLU, is bigger. Less press, less showy, but way more important. That's room for 15,000 more employees. Add the jobs multiplier and everyone's families, and that sort of (potential) employment growth would support population growth of 60,000 at least. And how about a big company doing it with high rises? It's even bigger than Microsoft's new spaces in 3.6 Downtown Bellevue highrises in the last boom.
As for basketball culture, we support it more than a lot of other cities. The Sonics had poor turnout under the carpet bagger than took the team, but it was generally decent or even excellent otherwise. And we certainly play the game, unlike hockey, which seems to be played mostly by transplants at a suburban rink or two and is never seen in the street. Quite a few Seattle kids have been making the NBA lately. |
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I go to Knicks games from time to time when I get invited to a friend's company's box at MSG, but I don't think anyone I know ever watches them on TV or owns a hat. And that's exactly my point... |
Seattleites don't buy team gear. At least not anywhere near on the scale of Middle America.
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Seattle is a big time basketball city. Look at all of those Seattle area folks playing in the NBA. The NHL would be a slam dunk too. Seattle is a great sports city, plus being near Vancouver and Portland would help an NHL franchise. |
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That's very closed minded, and even racist?. Seattle is a great basketball city. Top 10 in the USA, easily. Nate Robinson Jamal Crawford Jason Terry Rodney Stuckey Terrence Williams Brian Scalabrine Spencer Hawes Martel Webster Jon Brockman Avery Bradley Marvin Williams Isaiah Thomas That's an NBA roster amount of current NBA players from the Seattle area. Brandon Roy and Aaron Brooks were both 18+ points a game scorers in the NBA in recent seasons, both from Seattle. Luke Ridnour, another NBA player is from an hour and a half north of Seattle and Steve Nash is from a 75 mile ferry ride away in Victoria, BC. Seattle has hosted 5 NCAA Final Fours. Led the NBA in total attendance multiple times. Was the first city to average over 20,000 fans a game over an entire NBA season. Great great basketball city. |
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Shouldn't take it personally; the Seattle fans are fine. But the money involved in a local cable deal or worldwide broadcasting isn't there (Fox decided against one, if the rumor is correct; I could be wrong), which means it has to struggle to make ends meet. You have to have an owner that is willing to lose money or who can talk the taxpayers into supporting his vanity project.
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If you're saying that Seattle is better than New Orleans, I wouldn't disagree with you; but maybe not enough larger to warrant the cost of a new arena and a relocation. After all, New Orleans fans are pretty rabid as well. |
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The Seattle media has followed this issue closely since a divorce involving one of the Mariners owners has blown the lid off the RSN talk. The Mariners were valued at an extra $200,000,000 because their TV deal is up in a few years. Read Geoff Baker's blog at the Seattle Times for info on the RSNs. |
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New Orleans fans are not rabid. They couldn't even sellout playoff games, before Hurricane Katrina. Watch Hornets games on TV. They are embarrassing with all of the empty seats in the lower bowl. Have you looked at the arena details in Seattle? It basically costs the public nothing. The public contribution is $200,000,000 in bonds to be paid back by rent and ticket sales at the arena with all shortfalls being covered by the private arena corporation. |
That's a nice spot for Amazon buildings in Seattle. That part of town has seen a lot of construction lately but still has a half-finished feel.
I am also jealous of Seattle's up to date oblique aerial imagery in Google Maps. |
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